Policy briefs

Aug 26, 2002

Thrift system still delayed

The new recordkeeping system for the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) won't be ready until November, according to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which manages the government's retirement savings plan. After several delays and a change in contractors, the TSP recordkeeping system was expected to be available next month.

The system will provide users with several new features, including daily account valuations and transaction processing. However, in an announcement released Aug. 20, the board said the system's deployment is being delayed for more testing. This will ensure that "all of its functions are fully tested in parallel with the operation of the current recordkeeping system using actual participant data submissions," the announcement said.

Homeland Security to test links

Within the next two months, the Office of Homeland Security will lead an exercise to test the possibility of linking federal, state and local incident command centers across the country with the White House situation room during times of emergency.

During the past several months, the office has set up off-site incident coordination and support centers that provide around-the-clock assistance for responding to security threats. The exercise will test links between these centers and the White House, said Stephen King, director of investigations and law enforcement in the Office of Homeland Security's Threat, Countermeasures and Incident Management Directorate. King was speaking Aug. 20 at the Government Symposium on Information Sharing and Homeland Security in Philadelphia.

A communications working group of federal, state and local agencies is examining the specific technology issues involved, he said.